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10/26/2012

European Youth Forum, Brussels, 25th October 2012
Among the six soft skills mostly demanded by employers, five are also among those developed through involvement in youth organisations: communication, team work, decision-making, organisational skills and self-confidence.

10/09/2012

European countries are increasingly emphasising the need to recognise the full range of an individual’s knowledge, skills and competences – those acquired not only at school, university or other education and training institutions, but also outside the formal system.

10/06/2012

World Teachers’ Day, held annually on October 5th since 1994 - when it was created by UNESCO - celebrates teachers worldwide. Its aim is to mobilise support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers. The slogan of this year's celebrations was 'Take a stand for teachers!'

This publication gathers a broad range of statistical information on migrant populations and their children worldwide by origin country which can be of use for policy makers to tail policies to the population groups in question. The various data sources on which this publication is based are compiled from many different OECD databases as well as from other non-OECD sources.

The Eurydice Network has been collecting and publishing data on teachers and school heads salaries
since 1995. Traditionally the information was used primarily in Key Data on Education reports, where two
sections were devoted to a comparative analysis of issues related to teachers and school heads.

The European Commission gathered information on the school systems of European Countries - member states as well as strategic partners. You will find useful information on both fees, support opportunities and planned reforms.

10/04/2012

"Critics of these organisations maintain that there is just no alternative to the traditional route of undergraduate studies, teacher training and then a career in the classroom. But those critics may simply underestimate the potential for creativity in the field of education that this combination of talent, passion and experience represents."

‎"Numbers are important. If you are a student or parent, however, would it really make a difference if in your country 10%, 25% or 30% of the education institutions are corrupt? Probably not. Even one corrupt school, and one fake doctor, engineer or teacher is just one too many." - interesting article on the OECD website

The literacy requirements increase as the communication environment multiplies and computers become more common. With poor skills it is difficult to understand, interpret and critically evaluate diverse messages.

The EU Youth Report adopted on 10th September 2012, calls for youth employment, social inclusion, health and the well-being of young people to be top priorities in Europe's youth policy. The report, which is produced every three years by the Commission, underlines that the EU and Member States must do more to support young people, who have borne the brunt of the economic crisis.

One in five 15-year-olds in Europe, as well as many adults, lack basic reading and writing skills, which makes it harder for them to find a job and puts them at risk of social exclusion. New publication by Lit.Voc tackles these problems. - We have to ask what does this mean for their children?

When does the school year start in Latvia? When does it end in Austria? When do students go on autumn holidays in Germany? Whether you are planning on studying a semester abroad or simply planning your next holiday, the updated and downloadable annual overview of the school and academic calendars in Europe 2012/13, published by Eurydice, can help!

The cost of higher education for students varies dramatically in Europe. Do you know which European country charges the highest student fees? Or else, in which countries are students not charged any at all? What is the proportion of fee payers and what are the regulations concerning international student fees?

In 2011, for the first time, we organized theInternational Week of Reading to Children. It was done in cooperation with our sister Czech Foundation “Every Czech Reads to Kids” as well as local authorities and libraries. Celebration started onJune 1st, 2011 in Cieszyn and Cesky Tesin jointly.

Wanted: translation and dissemination good practises! Stichting Kleurrijke Scholen recently finished the Handbook Parential Initiatives for desegregation of primary schools. We want this book to be available througout Europe for parents wishing to desegregate pre-primary and primary schools. - Lonneke Sondorp

We all know how important the first years of formal education are; but what if the education provided during those years isn’t the best it can be? Are students forever penalised? Astudy in Canada that followed the 15-year-old students who had participated in PISA in 2000 and re-assessed their reading skills 9 years later shows that where education and training opportunities are readily available, deficits in initial education do not doom individuals to poor reading proficiency for the rest of their lives.In fact, on average, the young people surveyed gained 57 score points on the PISA reading scale between the ages of 15 and 24 – the equivalent of more than one year of school.

EPA and other international NGOs have been criticising the European Commission's intentions for new financial and funding regulations in the field of education. The proposed funding programme "Erasmus for All" shall replace the old pattern of funding models by which EPA gained substantial support up to 2011. Our coalition will meet on September 24 to discuss the actual status. - Johannes Theiner, EPA President on 28 August 2012

The civil society platform form the promotion of multilingualism held its latest General Assembly in the end of June 2012 in Brussels with a renewed spirit to continue its efforts to promote multilingualism in Europe as one of the key elements to foster European Integration and contributing to the promotion of intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding, cultural diversity, but also mobility, employment and economic growth in Europe.

A new study from a Sardinian-Scottish research team has shown that bilingual children outperform their monolingual classmates when it comes to problem-solving skills and creative thinking. - from CORDIS News

A survey and a feasibility study on National Stakeholders' Forum has been published by EUCIS-LLL. The last research work of the Platform has been focused on National Stakeholders´ Forums, designed to foster concrete cooperation and consultation mechanisms at the national level on lifelong learning strategies in member states and on European cooperation in education and training. - press release

Dangerous tendency especially if you look at the numbers in Central and Eastern Europe: about 900.000 children drop out early as compared to 1.3 million in the whole of Western Europe and North America

This report summarizes the evidence on the social determinants of health in the urban context, drawing on the findings of the global Commission on Social Determinants of Health and the European review of social determinants of health and the health divide.

The 2012 Report Cards and Profiles describe: 1) how well a country is doing to make it safe for children, 2) the gaps in action on unintentional injury that need to be addressed, and 3) which good practices should be adopted to prevent injuries and to save more children's lives.

In this article O’Reilly makes a strong case for the importance of developing “soft” skills in today’s global labour market. “We all obsess about mathematics and science skills,” he says, “but cultural skills do matter.”

Encouraging citizens, particularly young people, to actively engage in social and political life has recently become a growing political priority both at national and European level. Because education is viewed as a principal means to promote active citizenship, the 2012 Eurydice report on Citizenship Education in Europe aims to capture how policies and measures relating to citizenship education have evolved over recent years in European countries.

According to OECD projections, there will be more than 200 million 25-34 year-olds with higher education degrees across all OECD and G20 countries by the year 2020 – and 40% of them will be from China and India alone. By contrast, the United States and the European Union countries are expected to account for just over a quarter of young people with tertiary degrees in OECD and G20 countries.

Strasbourg, 23.05.2012 Press release - In a draft resolution adopted yesterday on “The young generation sacrificed: social, economic and political consequences of the financial crisis”, the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) notes that the young generation is disproportionally hit by the unemployment/underemployment-poverty-exclusion trap, a situation that could have tragic consequences.

What is actually being done to ensure that our workforce is skilled for 21st century success and to ensure that students are skilled, ready to work and contribute to society? An article on the OECD website is trying to find answers.

This report examines whether and how parents’ involvement is related to their child’s proficiency in and enjoyment of reading -- and it also offers comfort to parents who are concerned that they don’t have enough time or the requisite academic knowledge to help their children succeed in school. Many types of parental involvement that are associated with better student performance in PISA require relatively little time and no specialised knowledge. What counts is genuine interest and active engagement.

Brussels, 2 May 2012 –The Commission has set out a plan to give children the digital skills and tools they need to benefit fully and safely from the digital world. The internet was not designed with children in mind, but today 75% of children use the internet, a third of them on mobiles. The new strategy is to build up the market for interactive, creative and educational content online, in a partnership between the European Commission and Member States, mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers and providers of social networking services.

Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), a WHO collaborative cross-national study, involves a wide network of researchers from all participating countries and regions. The Health Behaviour of School-aged Children (HBSC) study provides key insights into the health-related behaviours of young
people. Its unique methodology has facilitated engagement with hundreds of thousands of young people in many parts of the world since its inception in 1983, building a data base over time that describes patterns and issues relevant to their health and well-being.

There is a good initiative in Hungary that I want to share with you: twice a year there is a series of two-day events where kids can watch and try differents sports they can learn and do in their free time. From this year on they can do the same with musical instruments.

The European Network in Intergenerational Learning responds to the need identified among practitioners to offer a platform and incentives for fostering new ideas and new developments in intergenerational learning across Europe, and to provide the infrastructure for on-going exchange of expertise, good practice, news, research and developments in the field.

EPA - the European Parents' Association - was founded in April 1985 in Milan/Italy to gather together associations of parents and families from all over Europe. The specific needs and interests of parents have been in the focus of EPA activities since then.

European Parents' Association

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